Poverty forecast

A record-breaking 100,000 people have received emergency food from foodbanks in the space of just six months, according to the Trussell Trust charity. Three new foodbanks are opening every week to help meet the growing demand for emergency food.

The charity warns that Christmas 2012 is looking even bleaker for families on the breadline, as rises in food and fuel bills over the winter could force more people into a crisis where they cannot afford to eat. It also points out that fewer than 5 per cent of foodbank clients are homeless, and that many are working families struggling to make ends meet.

The Trussell Trust operates the UK's only national network of foodbanks, in partnership with churches and community organisations. The foodbanks provide a minimum of three days emergency food to people in crisis. Foodbank recipients are referred by a frontline care professional such as a doctor, social worker or schools liaison officer.

Improvements have been proposed in the way material deprivation is measured in European Union countries. The changes are designed to aid the monitoring of social objectives at both national and EU levels.

Researchers have put forward a new material deprivation indicator for the whole EU population, and also a child-specific indicator (for those aged 1–15). Their work draws on data collected in the 2009 wave of EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions). 'Material deprivation' is based on the affordability of a selection of items (goods or services) considered to be necessary or desirable for people to have an 'acceptable' standard of living in the country where they live.

Gender is a prime factor in explaining why some people are at risk of poverty rather than others, according to new European study. The authors adopt a gender perspective on poverty – in terms of both income poverty and poverty as a multi-dimensional phenomenon.

Intergenerational factors have the biggest influence on income poverty in 'liberal' and southern European welfare regimes, according to a study funded by the European Commission.

The study analysed the relationship between poverty and social exclusion (on the one hand) and parental characteristics and childhood economic circumstances (on the other), using data from the EU-SILC 2005. It compared findings from one-dimensional and multi-dimensional approaches to poverty and social exclusion, in order to assess how far different welfare regimes affect the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage.

A rise in the share of national income taken by profits is linked to a rise in income inequality and poverty, says a new research study for the United Nations. The main contributory factors are policies that promote economic 'liberalisation' and deregulation, and in general the 'slow erosion' of the welfare state.

The study draws on high-quality and homogeneous datasets for 26 developed countries (compiled by the United Nations and the OECD), together with secondary sources.

Poverty in the USA has fallen by 12.5 percentage points over the past 40 years, according to a new paper – contrary to official government statistics showing a rise in the number of people in poverty. Researchers argue that a more accurate picture is given by looking at changes in consumption rather than income. They also advocate improved income measures that remove bias in official price indices. On the basis of these alternative measures, they conclude: 'We may not have won the war on poverty, but we are certainly winning'.

More than one in five children in the USA are living in poverty, according to new figures released by the official Census Bureau. The report also reveals growing inequality between 2010 and 2011, and a decline in median household income.

Thousands of people in Scotland are being forced to rely on charities for food handouts, according to new evidence. A report charts the numbers of clients of Scottish citizen's advice bureaux who have made a charitable application, and also records information from charities themselves about the increasing demand for food parcels. Problems in the benefits system are identified as the major factor.

'Striking' consistency is found in the things that different groups of people perceive to be the 'necessities of life' in the UK today, according to a new study. The working paper – part of the Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK project – used focus groups to examine people's perceptions of poverty, social exclusion and living standards.

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PSE:UK is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. ESRC Grant RES-060-25-0052.